Small Blue Project Summary of 2010

The Small Blue Reintroduction Project has now been going for over a year! Hurrah!
The last update was way back in May 2010, so there's lots of exciting news to catch up on! I'll start with a summary of the project during the later part of 2010.

During the summer a number of volunteers visited Gailes to check up on the kidney vetch that was sown and planted earlier in the year. There was some interesting news in July when it was noticed that a few of the young plants that had been planted in May had began to flower in their first year! This is often a sign that the plants are stressed, and was following a couple of weeks of very dry conditions. Often this rapid flowering strategy can lead to the plants puting all their energy into seed production and then dying. Luckily most of the plants seemed to survive well. The seedlings that were sown in the bare strips appeared to fare much better during the drought, possibly because they'd grown in situ.
Kidney vetch planted in May

Kidney Vetch seedlings sown in March 2010.

The new hedge was also hit hard by the dry conditions in the summer, with quite a few loosing leaves. We'll have to wait until later in 2011 to see if sections of the hedge will need to be replaced. Tree guards were applied to the crab apples to protect them from rabbits.

In June and July, together with a couple of volunteers we set about recording areas of kidney vetch within and around the reserve. Good amounts of mature kidney vetch plants were found amoung the dunes south of Irvine, which should make perfect natural habitat for the small blue to colonise.

In early october I visited Gailes to check on the kidney vetch. The grass was looking lush and there were still a few Common Blue and Small Copper zipping between flowerheads.
Gailes Marsh October 2010Wildlife Hedge at Gailes MarshKidney vetch in bare scrapes October 2010Small Copper on Ragwort October 2010Male Common Blue on Ragwort October 2010.

In the Autumn to 20 horses were released to graze Gailes Marsh. They'll stay there until the end of March 2011. Their grazing helps to promote an abundance of wild flowers and keeps grasses from taking over.